Do you trust your doctor?

[hotblonde]

Apologies

[fallen_nemesis]

my relationship with doctors is a funny one. I think I've had far better diagnosis from doctors who have just qualified and student doctors in the past few years than my own GP. I think the reason is GP's sometimes have a tendancy after seeing say 100 odd cases of the flu to dismiss similar symptoms as the same instead of entertaining something a bit more unlikely that it could equally be. This could all be in my head however and not the case. I just find that GP's that don't know me tend to ask a lot more questions.

i also don't agree with phone consultations. While ok, maybe useful for simply checking things with GP's I don't really think you can diagnose folk over the phone. I got told I had an inflamed jaw joint and it COULDN'T POSSIBLY BE MUMPS as it was only one side of my jaw that hurt, despite having told them there was an outbreak at uni. Next day, at the doctor for full blown mumps.

Give them their due though, i do think they do a tough job, but damn straight I'm going to challenge them on things I don't necessarily agree with, and not just until I get the diagnosis I want either. if problems don't get better I've sorta learned to keep going back until they sort out what's wrong properly.

I went for weeks once with glandular fever that the test had come back negative one and my GP sending me away saying it was just tonsillitus, fuck off and come back in a week if it still isn't better. This went on for 3 weeks. By the time I finally collapsed after losing a stone and half and got taken into hospital my LFT levels were so high I'd become jaundiced and my liver had become inflamed. Cue a hefty hospital stay. CHEERS GP!

I dunno, I get ill a lot and prob see a GP every few weeks for something that actually NEEDS medication or treatment, not just the cold or flu. it's scary how much the quality of diagnosis/ treatment / listening to patients varies from GP to GP though.

[Devastator]

My GP looks like Mark Lamarr, how could I NOT trust him?

In all seriousness though, I pretty much do take everything doctors say as fact. I've been misdiagnosed before, being told my back pain was kidney problems when it was actually sciatica. But I have a history of kidney problems, and sciatica is what old people get, so fair enough.

Last two times I've been to hospital I've seen the same triage nurse, who as well as being an arsehole knows nothing about tattoos - as I told her. So my trust doesn't go to all medical professionals. I love orthodontists though.

I'm going to the doctors tomorrow so hopefully I won't be eating my words after that.

[Largest of Gregs]

Originally Posted by endless psych

Well?

Partly for my own interest (and partly to help finish an OU assignment...) I thought I'd ask the good folks of AN if they trust health professionals and why they do or why they don't?

Is trust inherent in Doctor-patient (health professional/service user (consumer or whatever the appropriate term is now) relationships or is it something that has to be earned or built up over time?

Do you trust a Doctors diagnosis and take their advice based upon their position or is it based more on how well you know and trust them. IE. would you be more likely to trust your local GP whose known you for years and seek a second opinion when dealing with a new doctor?

Cheers to anyone who decides to post a reply.

I do not trust GPs or A+E doctors.

I went to my gp complaining in extreme tiredness, unexplained weight loss, and uncontrollable tickly cough and a golf ball sized lump on the back of my head.

All common complaints of a certain illness!!!

She said to me "You're young, probably just overdoing it at work."

She then said "Don't worry about the lump on your head, you probably just banged it"

Couple of weeks later I went to A+E one night with chest pains. They gave me pain killers and told me to go home. Most annoying thing is that a chest X-ray is standard protocol when a patient complains of chest pains.

So I was sent on my way again after being told that nothing was wrong.

2 months later I had my diagnosis after being rushed to A+E in an ambulance.

So in short, I do not trust my GP or A+E docs and I plan to follow up my complains with them.

On the other hand I trust me new consultant 110% He is fantastic at explaining things well, he is incredibly friendly and caring and he definately knows his stuff and doesn't leave anything to chance.

If I have a headache he will get my head scanned the same day etc. Everything is precautionary and incredibly appreciated.

Lastly I have a bunch of nurses that I have become very close to. They are all amazingly competent and caring.

[Elfaba]

nope shes a fanny

took too long to diagnose something in the first place then failed to sufficiently advise me on it or monitor it which landed me in a pretty nasty place last year and ended up with me in hospital for something that i would like to have thought would have been otherwise prevented given the appropriate diagnosis/treatment/advice earlier

needless to say I've changed docs now

[Metalcherry]

Mines is nice enough, but i feel sometimes she doesnt listen, at the moment im going through some really bad internal problems which is making me more ill at times and when i go and complain and provide her with information i have been documenting she seems to disregard it and pap me on some more tablets - after my appointment on Thursday with her im beginning to think she hasnt got a clue how to treat my problem and putting me on any pills she can find.

Im now on 7 pills a day and 4 of them are for my problem

But she is so much better than my other doctor, who never listened to you, wouldnt touch you and constantly insulted you.
After my fall down the stairs at ruths party, i had bad back problems and he never touched my back - he poked my side and began talking abotu weight watchers!
I had to make 2 appointments at times, one to see the nurse and the other to see him - even for the simplest things that my current doctor does, he never really looked at my records and began putting me on tablets which if he looked in my records were a no-no because Thrombosis runs in my family and my mum has been near death too many times and i need to get the tests done every 6 months as they think its quite likely it may appear in me.

[GoddamnElectric]

There is one medical professional I trust implicitly. He's a neurosurgeon in Paisley who literally saved my mother's life. She'd been correctly diagnosed with a brain tumour but no one but this guy spotted just how urgent it was. He cleared the books and operated within 48hours of seeing mum for the first time, and she lives to tell the tale. What's even more amazing is how he's kept in touch since and become a firm friend of the family, so much that mum took her father to him for a last ditch attempt to operate on his cancer. Sadly he didn't make it, but from all accounts it was an incredible effort made.